


Queen Sacrifice

by just_a_pinwheel



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: A romantic believes in destiny but Jihoon ain’t one, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Angst, Chess Inspired - Freeform, Destiny, Falling In Love, First Love, Fluff, Jihoon hates being in a magical world and I can’t blame him, M/M, Magic, Magical War, Minor Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parallel Universes, Romance, Slow Burn, Smut, Smut (one day in the far future) - Freeform, i’ve warned you, like really long, mentioned mpreg, soonyoung is a sweetheart, this story is going to be long
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:34:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25647412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_a_pinwheel/pseuds/just_a_pinwheel
Summary: Jihoon is going through life without any purpose and will until one day he gets thrown into a strange world that feels a bit like home and a bit like a big joke - because a land where there is magic and people’s abilities are as chess pieces tattooed on their skin certainly doesn’t seem like the real world. Especially not when he’s told that he’s born to stand at the top of the kingdom together with the new king.Jihoon is hellbound to find a way back to his own world but he barely has any time to do so while struggling to learn magic, trying to deal with the king and a war lurking around the corner that doesn’t make any sense to him. Will he run away or accept his destiny?
Relationships: Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Lee Seokmin | DK, Jeon Wonwoo/Kim Mingyu, Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 90
Kudos: 190





	1. Opening

It was raining when Jihoon hurried back from university and his heart was heavy with worries. The new semester had only started last month and he already felt like giving up - again. He was 21 now and in his third year studying economics and he wasn’t even sure how he made it this far. Already in his first year, one of his professors had told him that he had zero talent in the field. Jihoon was easily agreeing. Studying economics might have been his worst decision in life. One might think that it’s easy enough to change the faculty and study something else but Jihoon had a reason to choose economics out of all majors available: Money. It seemed to him like the easiest and fastest way to make a lot of money and that’s exactly what he wanted.

Jihoon grew up in an orphanage, having no one to support him. He had been abandoned already as a baby so he didn’t know what it was like to have a family. Maybe that was the reason why he didn’t like people all that much and he mostly kept to himself. When he started university at 19, he moved out of the orphanage into a small flat he was sharing with a random guy from university who had been searching for a roommate. He neither liked or disliked the guy. They sometimes exchanged some words when they met in the kitchen and once even watched a movie together but it had been slightly awkward so it had never happened afterward again. Right now his roommate Minki was in Daegu because of some family troubles, so Jihoon had the flat at least one week for himself. Having his own flat was almost like a dream. It was one of the few things he really wanted in life and for that he needed money. His own flat and leaving this damn city for once were the only two motivations he had to carry on living. Jihoon had never traveled anywhere, always staying in Seoul, not even moving around a lot in the city. There was only so much you could do when you had no money. 

That’s why he came to the conclusion at school that studying economics at university was the only thing that made sense for him. Since entering university he had regretted that choice countless times but he still tried to pull through somehow because he needed to make money. Money for his own flat, money to go on travels and to buy all the things he never had, money to let him live a comfortable life without too many people around, that was his only wish. After all, people only were a nuisance and a disappointment. He grew up alone and would die alone, it was just as easy as that for Jihoon.

It suddenly rained much harder and Jihoon started running because he had no umbrella with him. He stopped under the roof of a convenience store and looked at the grey sky. Rain was heavily falling on the grey asphalt and Jihoon wasn’t sure if the world had always looked this dull before. It was like the color had faded away and only the empty shell of a once brightly sparkling world was left behind. For a moment everything around Jihoon seemed to stop moving and the student was overcome by great sadness.

Once upon a time, Jihoon had had dreams too. The dream that a family would pick him up from the orphanage and give him a warm home. The dream of going to school, finding friends, having fun, and finding his purpose in life - but he had found nothing. No parents picked him up and in school, he had been always the loner. While looking up at the sky, Jihoon wasn’t sure if this life was even worth living. A dream wasn’t all that important but he needed at least a purpose in life or a person it was worth living for. How should he go on when his life made no sense? Just living to make money didn’t seem worth all the troubles he had to go through. Was there really no reason why he had been born?

Jihoon sighed and walked out into the rain because he wanted to return suddenly home fast. In just a few seconds his clothes were completely drenched but it didn’t bother him all that much. What difference did it make when he would get sick? No one worried about him either way and his marks couldn’t even get any worse. If he would get sick, he could at least stay at home for a while and sleep. While sleeping the world faded into nothingness and Jihoon could finally feel at peace.

The student stopped after a 10 minutes wandering through the rain in front of a shabby looking apartment complex. He walked up to the dirty entrance door no one ever bothered cleaning, unlocked it, and shook the door handle back and forth a few times until the door finally opened. He had once asked the landlord to fix it but the only answer he had gotten was to pay then more rent. Jihoon had never asked again.

Jihoon walked up the stairs to the third floor and then a couple of steps down the corridor until he arrived in front of an iron door with a few dents in it. It looked a bit like a door to a prison cell and often enough it felt like that too. 

Jihoon unlocked the door, went inside, and shrugged his shoes off. He walked into his room and threw his wet bag and jacket first to the floor, followed by all the wet clothes he was peeling one after the other off his skin. He went over to his small wardrobe and pulled out random underwear, his favorite light blue jeans, and the first shirt he could reach, which was a slightly crinkled black button-down shirt with short sleeves. He would have preferred his joggers but he needed to go outside later to buy some instant noodles because he had no food at home anymore. He hated changing clothes all the time and his old joggers were in no state to wear them outside, so he rather wore his comfortable jeans now so he could go outside at once whenever it stopped raining. He had wanted to pick up something to eat on the way home but he had totally forgotten because of the rain and his gloomy mood. Now he would have to wait until the rain had stopped to get something to eat because he didn’t want to get wet a second time.

Jihoon went over to where he had thrown his bag onto the floor, took his wallet out, and put it into the pocket of his jeans. He looked out of the window in front of him and saw that it was still raining strongly and the world looked even greyer than before. It was a strange day, almost like the end of the world. 

Jihoon walked to his desk and sat down on the uncomfortable chair in front of it. He didn’t feel like doing anything, he really was in a foul mood today. Not every day was like this. There were days too, on which he was very motivated and studied like an obsessed person. Without these days, he wouldn’t have made it into the second year of university. Still, the good days were far less than the bad days and it became more and more difficult to go on.

Jihoon laid his head onto the table and looked at the chessboard standing on his desk. He had bought it after he got through the first semester at university. He saw it through the window of a toy store and it had intrigued him somehow. He had some leftover money at that time from his part-time job at the coffee shop he had started right after entering university so he decided to buy the chessboard on a whim because it had been cheap but looked fancy. He didn’t even know how to play chess and up to this day, he didn’t learn it. The chessboard was just standing on his desk looking pretty with the pieces made out of glass.

He sat up and grabbed one of the white pieces knitting his eyebrows while looking at it. Jihoon overcame another wave of despair and he really wished to become like the piece on the chessboard. He could just stand there without any worries in the world and simply watch the other people struggling with their lives. Jihoon made a sour face at his thoughts. When did he become so sad and tired that even turning into a chess piece seemed better than real life? But then again, what could he do? He despised his life and simply wanted things to change but nothing was ever working out as he had planned it. “Just a little change, a little hope… there is nothing else I’m asking for,” he sighed out quietly.

Jihoon just wanted to put the piece back on the chessboard when his hand suddenly flickered strangely. Out of shock, he let the chess piece fall onto the table. A dull sound rang through the silence of the room when the heavy chess piece fell onto the table. Jihoon rubbed his eyes thinking he must be tired and his mind was playing tricks on him but when he took down his hand again he saw that his hands had turned slightly translucent. Jihoon hastily got up and ran over to the bathroom and looked at the mirror in panic. When he saw his reflection, he gasped loudly. His whole body seemed to have turned translucent. Jihoon’s pupils were shaking strongly in distress because he didn’t know what was happening and what he could do. In a situation like this, you should call someone but he didn’t have a single person he could call. He owned a very old smartphone he had bought at the start of the university from a second-hand shop when his boss at the coffee shop had insisted he needed to be able to contact him by phone. He only had the number of the coffee shop and Minki’s number saved there but neither one was helpful in a situation like this. But then again, no person on the whole planet was probably helpful while vanishing.

He ran back into his room and looked around praying to get an idea of what to do or what could help him but there was nothing. He was vanishing and he had no idea how to stop it. He sank to his knees and looked at his hands again. He was almost completely translucent now. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Maybe this was for the better because this life was not worth living either way.

“Goodbye,” he murmured before darkness overcame him.

*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Jihoon’s head was pounding like mad. He was feeling cold stone under his body and he wondered where he was because not even his bed was that hard. He forced his eyes open, his vision slightly blurry. He looked around and realized he was in a small alley. He got up from the floor, his body tingling unpleasantly. He didn’t know where he was or how he got here. He grabbed his head in pain and tried to remember what had happened last but his memory was strangely messy. He remembered coming home from university, changing his wet clothes, and then it became difficult to make out what had happened.

Jihoon pushed his slightly too long fringe out of his eyes and shook his head in confusion. He started walking down the alley, his steps a bit shaky. He stopped when he reached the end of the alley and was standing now on a bigger street. Cars and people were going by and it was as noisy as always in Seoul. He tried to figure out where he was but the street didn’t seem familiar. What had happened? Had he been sleepwalking? It didn’t seem likely because he had never done that before. He thought harder about what he had done after returning home from university and his head pounded even more. A memory of translucent hands was flaring up in his memory and suddenly he knew what had happened at home. He had vanished. He had thought he would die but here he was alive and kicking. Still, it was mysterious how he had gotten here because there was no realistic explanation for it. People don’t vanish and wake up in unknown alleys. Maybe he had been so stressed from university out that he had lost some of his memory. That also didn’t sound convincing but still better than vanishing and waking up in some other part of the city.

Jihoon decided that he would solve the mystery later, first of all, he needed to find his way back home. He walked down the street and tried to find something that would give him a clue where he was exactly but there was nothing he recognized. His stomach growled loudly and he remembered that he still hadn’t eaten something. There was a convenience store on the other side of the street and he felt like it would be best to eat something before searching for a way back home because it was difficult to concentrate while his stomach was growling and his head was pounding at the same time. Jihoon crossed the street and walked into the shop. He grabbed some sandwiches and brought them to the register.

The woman behind the register scanned the sandwiches and in the meantime, Jihoon put a bill from his wallet on the table. “One point five M,” she said while looking confused at the bill on the table. “Excuse me what did you just say?” Jihoon asked her not understanding what she was trying to tell him at all. The woman’s gaze fell on Jihoon’s arms and she looked suddenly very alarmed.

“Where is your smartwatch?” She asked him in a very unfriendly tone and Jihoon took involuntarily a step backward. He had never owned a watch in his whole life, especially not a smartwatch. What was she talking about? “And even more important, where is your mark? I can’t see one on you. Are you a spy? I’ll call the police!”

“A what? A spy? Me? No, you must have it all wrong. I…” Jihoon took two more steps backward, turned around, and dashed out. He ran out of the store and as fast as possible down the street. He went to the right and then again to left and ran until his side was hurting and he couldn’t go on anymore. He stood panting on a sidewalk while looking around in panic.

Something strange was going on. He still didn’t know what the woman was talking about. Why was she asking about a watch and a mark and why did she call him a spy? It all didn’t make any sense. No one calls you a spy for buying sandwiches.

Jihoon’s breathing slowly evened out and his mind became a bit calmer as well. He needed to get a grip and figure out what was going on. Panicking wouldn’t be of any use. A young man suddenly stopped beside him and closed the open lace of his shoe. Jihoon’s gaze fell onto his wrist at once. There was a transparent watch on his wrist that looked like it was either made of glass or see-through plastic. Jihoon wouldn’t be surprised about such an extravagant thing if it wouldn’t be for the fact that instead of a clock face, the watch had a strange sparkling liquid inside. Jihoon couldn’t even tell what color it was because it seemed to change all the time. The student rubbed his eyes, not believing what he saw in front of him. The sparkling liquid seemed to be moving inside of the watch and there was no way something like that could exist.

Jihoon just wanted to ask the man about the watch but he already stood up again after finish tying his lace and went on his way. Jihoon turned around to look at the other people walking past him and noticed how every single one had such a watch on their wrist. What made him finally lose all his cool was the moment he saw that not only everyone had such a strange watch but on top of that, all people had under their watch a tattoo of the same white chess piece. 

He had believed before that he had woken up in a strange place of the city he didn’t know but he had been wrong. This couldn’t be Seoul, this had to be a completely different place. Jihoon suddenly felt like crying because the whole situation was ridiculous and he didn’t know what to do. He was in a strange place with nowhere to go. He neither had such a watch nor such a mark and people without were obviously treated as spies here. It would only be a matter of time that the police would find him and throw him into prison or do something even worse to him. Jihoon couldn’t be sure because he didn’t know how the police were operating here. He couldn’t be sure about anything even though this city looked almost like Seoul.

“Don’t move,” a voice right behind him suddenly told him loudly. Jihoon froze up at once and closed his eyes. It seemed like he didn’t have to worry anymore about what he should do or where he should go because he had been caught faster than expected. “We are from the police, please turn around slowly so we can put handcuffs on you.”

Jihoon opened his eyes again and gritted his teeth. This was one awful day. He turned around and held his wrists out at once. “We were informed that you don’t carry a smartwatch and have no mark on your body so we must assume that you are concealing your mark. You’re under suspicion of being a spy from the other kingdom and we’ll take you into custody for now.” 

The policeman put handcuffs on Jihoon, the metal feeling heavy on his wrists - almost as heavy as his thoughts. Kingdom? Watches with sparkling liquid in it? Tattoos of chess pieces? Nothing of this could be real.

Maybe everything was just a dream. It seemed like the only reasonable explanation for everything but the sky looked much too bright and blue for being just a scenery in a dream. Would the air smell so fresh and the metal of handcuffs be so cold on his wrists if everything would be only a fantasy? 

Jihoon’s stomach was growling loudly, reminding him that he still hadn’t eaten all day. No, this wasn’t a dream. This was reality and Jihoon had no idea how to survive here. The only good thing in this city was the fact that at least it wasn’t raining here.

Jihoon looked up at the sky and the sun was sparkling brightly like it wanted to tell him that everything would be alright but Jihoon didn’t believe in miracles - because he had never experienced one throughout all his life. He suddenly really wanted to be back at home in his little flat he normally didn’t like all that much. 

When he had wished for his life to be different, he hadn’t thought that things could change like this. Jihoon swore to be careful what he would wish for in the future because the outcome might not be at all like he expected it to be.

“I’ve stopped dreaming a long time ago. Wishing for another life had been foolish,” he muttered to himself while the policeman pushed him into a car. The door shut with a loud bang and Jihoon leaned his head against the cold glass of the window.

He wanted to sleep and never wake up again.

_________________________________________

 **Opening:** The beginning phase of a chess game, roughly the first dozen moves, but it can extend much farther. In the opening, players set up their pawn structures, develop their pieces, and usually castle. The opening precedes the middlegame.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to my new big project. I can’t really say how long it will be but my guess is around 200k. So I’ll update this for a very long time :D
> 
> I actually had planned since last year to do another story after Code Red but Queen Sacrifice won over that. I was thinking one day about fantasy settings and was playing around a lot with the idea of a survival game. I’m a sucker for survival game setting but going through plot ideas made me realize that it’s much too difficult to write but at that point, I was already kind of hung up on a fantasy au and considered games as setting for an alternate universe. Chess was what I decided on in the end because I easily came up with a plot for it. I thought some days about it and fell in love with the idea, so here is the story :D
> 
> Queen Sacrifice has a world-building that is chess inspired but you don’t really have to know a lot about chess. As long as you know the different chess pieces, you should be fine. Every chapter title will be a chess term that is fitting for the chapter, it will be explained at the end of each chapter.
> 
> Hmm, from everything I wrote up to now, I put the most time into planning this story… which was also necessary because a fantasy au needs a lot more planning because the world-building has to be much more detailed than for a modern au. Though I chose to do a magical realism au which is a good mix and my personal favorite. 
> 
> In the beginning, this story might be a bit slow (this chapter was really slow but it’s more like a prelude than a real chapter) because there will be so much world-building but I try my best to make it not boring haha. From all my stories, this one has the most solid plot and really works as a story. Before, I didn’t think a lot about structures and plot developments, outcomes and whatever so I hope this one will be better to read than what I’ve done before :D
> 
> For now, I’ll update Queen Sacrifice biweekly because I still have other works in progress but I’ll try to finish them as soon as possible. Chapters also will be shorter than what you are used from me in the beginning. I’ll try to not write over 5k or I won’t be able to manage my workload haha.
> 
> Thank you for reading! I’ll update next week Code Red and the week after I’ll be back with the second chapter of Queen Sacrifice. Take care and have a nice weekend :D


	2. Bind

Jihoon sat in the police car, feeling a bit like in one of the Marvel movies he liked to watch. An innocent, young person got captured and needed to be rescued by some immensely powerful superhero - but there was no superhero in sight. Jihoon was alone in a strange world staring out of a police car’s window wondering why everything looked so familiar and was yet vastly different from what he was used to. Jihoon had neither figured out what the strange chess piece markings were all about nor which function the freaky watches on every person’s wrist had. People seemed to pay with another currency here even though everyone talked in his language and there were probably even more things different, but Jihoon didn’t feel like finding out. He simply wanted to leave this mess behind.

Jihoon gazed at the two police officers in the car who were stoically looking ahead. Jihoon wanted to ask a thousand questions but he was sure it would be better to keep quiet. The car stopped after a short ride and one of the officers opened the door to let him out. They walked through the police station and opened a door to a small room. The light turned on without anyone switching it on and Jihoon looked around in confusion. 

One of the officers took off the handcuffs of Jihoon when the door was securely shut. He told him to “sit down” and Jihoon did as requested immediately. He still looked curiously around searching for the light switch but he couldn’t see one. Maybe it was outside and he hadn’t noticed the officer moving it. Jihoon shook his head tiredly - the whole situation must play games on his mind.

“What’s your name?” The taller of the two policemen asked. 

“Lee Jihoon,” the student answered truthfully while looking around wearily now taking in his surroundings. He never had been in a police station. It was already awful to be in a strange place without knowing why he was here, but sitting in a cold interrogation room made everything even worse. 

“Where is your mark and your smartwatch?”

Jihoon didn’t know how to answer because he neither had such a strange watch nor mark. If he would tell the police officers the truth, they would probably think he’s lying. No one would believe such an absurd story, so the police officers would of course think he’s making up this story to hide that he is some sort of spy. It might be better to think of some clever lie so the policemen wouldn’t throw him into prison at once - or torture him or maybe even kill him. The death penalty could be a thing here when you were a spy, Jihoon didn’t know. Just because the city looked very similar to Seoul, he shouldn’t easily assume things to be the same. Maybe being a spy was the same as being a mass murderer here - everything was possible. Jihoon felt for a moment the need to bang his head against the wall. He really needed to come up with an explanation fast or maybe even better a whole story. Stories are more believable even if they are strange. Unfortunately, Jihoon had never been particularly talented at telling stories.

“Earlier I woke up in a small alley and my head was hurting. I can’t remember anything that happened before waking up. I only know my name.” It was the best Jihoon could come up with. It was even quite close to the truth. He only left out the part that he remembered what happened before waking up in the alley very well. But no one would believe him if he said that he was from another world or something similar to it. Even Jihoon still couldn’t wrap his head around what had happened exactly. How did he get here and what was the reason for being here? These were things he needed to figure out.

“So you have amnesia?” The other officer asked this time. He didn’t look like he was believing Jihoon’s story - at all. 

The student was shaking one of his feet nervously. He needed a better explanation. “Yes. Maybe I was, I don’t know… robbed? Someone might have hit me on the head!” It sounded plausible to Jihoon. He was very proud of himself at that moment. He was a genius.

“But where is your mark? It’s possible that your watch has been stolen but no one can steal your mark. After all, it shows who we are.”

Jihoon was at a loss for words. He thought for a short moment, his story might be believable on a very freaky level, but it seemed like it wasn’t that case. 

“I don’t know. I can’t remember,” Jihoon said weakly. He had completely given up on coming up with a better story, it didn’t make any sense either way. The police officers would never trust him because he had no mark.

“This is a serious situation you are in, mister Lee. We’ll check your identity and get our superior. He’ll decide what to do with you.”

The two police officers left and the iron door fell shut with a loud bang. Jihoon leaned back in the uncomfortable chair and stared at the blank wall. He had the bad feeling that this situation wouldn’t work out in his favor. If this was indeed another world or something like that, he would have no identity here and without an identity, he would be obviously treated as a spy - which was ridiculous because he didn’t even know what a spy would do here. 

After waiting for a while, he laid his head onto the table in front of him and closed his eyes. He wanted to get out of here. His whole life had felt like being in a prison, he didn’t want to live in a real prison from now on. Why did it seem like life was always against him? It kept on bringing him misery but never joy.

The door opened again with a shrill screeching sound and a middle-aged, tall man came together with the two police officers from before into the room. Jihoon immediately noticed just from looking at his uniform that the man was higher in rank because he had some badges on his button-down shirt. Even more eye-catching than his high rank was the tattoo on his arm. He had the sleeves of the button-down shirt rolled up to his elbows and Jihoon could see on his underarm a different chess piece. It seemed like the difference in rank was not only defined by the badges on his shirt but also by the tattoo on his arm. While the two officers, just like all people Jihoon had seen on the street had a mark of a white pawn on their wrists, this high ranked officer had a white knight on his underarm. Jihoon had not the slightest idea what all of this meant.

“Mister Lee Jihoon, we’ve found no information on you in our database. Who are you?”

Jihoon swallowed heavily hearing the question. What more could he say at this point? They didn’t seem to believe his story of having lost his memory, but all the more they wouldn’t believe that he didn’t belong here, that he had no idea where he was or why he was sitting here being treated as a spy and threat to the country. So in the end Jihoon chose to keep quiet.

“I’m not a very patient person mister Lee. Show us your mark now. You must have one.” The higher ranked officer's voice was harsh and it made something snap inside of Jihoon. Before the student could even stop himself, he already screamed at the other.

“I don’t have a mark, okay?! I don’t even belong here! I don’t know what’s going on! Kingdom? Spy? Don’t make me laugh. This is all like a bad movie.”

The three police officers looked taken aback at Jihoon’s sudden outbreak for a moment, but the oldest of them recovered fast and seemed to be now even more agitated than before. “I know you want to conceal your mark because you’re from the other kingdom. You are much too close to the palace for it being a coincidence. You better show it to us now.”

Palace? Things were getting even more absurd. The city looked like Seoul and not like a kingdom with some palace in it.

“I said I don’t have a mark!!!” Jihoon became really annoyed now and got up from his chair. One of the policemen immediately walked up to him and tried to make him sit down again but Jihoon was struggling against his hold in desperation.

“Sit down right now.” The officer told him in a strong voice but Jihoon struggled just harder. The police officer grabbed his shirt hard and pulled at it to make him finally sit down, but Jihoon didn’t move at all, instead, a button from his shirt went flying. The police officer gasped loudly, let go of the student, and took a step back. Jihoon didn’t know what had brought the change on, but he was glad the fight was over for now. He was sure that he wouldn’t have been able to stand his ground for much longer. 

“We are very sorry,” the older officer said, looking apologetic. All three men made a deep bow and Jihoon was now ultimately confused. He looked around the small room and started laughing fakely.

“This is candid camera, right? I don’t know why you are doing something like this to a simple student like me but the joke has been going on long enough. This isn’t funny anymore - never was in the first place.”

The three police officers kept on bowing deeply and Jihoon let out a noise of annoyance in the back of his throat. “First you put handcuffs on me to bring me to the police station and now you won’t stop bowing! What the hell is wrong with you people?”

“We are very sorry. Please forgive us. If we would have known…” The officers finally stopped bowing and lifted their heads. One of them almost looked like he would pass out, terror written all over his face.

“Known what?” Jihoon asked in annoyance, not sure if this situation was any better than before.

“You should have told us your position at once and this would have never happened.”

“What position??” At this point, Jihoon only wanted to understand what was going on. Someone should sit down with him and explain all the strange things here but the officers didn’t seem to be willing to do that. It seemed more like they were now afraid of even talking to him.

“We’ll bring you to the palace.”

Jihoon sighed loudly. First the police station, now the palace. What would come next? A spaceship? “Why do I have to go to the palace?”

“Everyone must be waiting for you. Let’s go immediately.”

Jihoon furrowed his brows, letting sink in the information he got. He wasn’t even from here, so he saw no reason why someone would be waiting for him. Not even in his world, anyone was waiting for him.

The student followed the higher-ranked police officer, the other two excusing themselves, hurrying off in a different direction. Jihoon was glad they didn’t tag along because they seemed to be even more uncomfortable with him than their superior was.

“Do you want something to eat or to drink? Or do you need anything else? I can get you whatever you like,” the older officer asked while looking over his shoulder at Jihoon. The smaller one simply shrugged. 

“No need. I lost my appetite.” 

When they left the police station, Jihoon took a deep breath while staring at the too blue sky. The fresh air seemed to be cleaner and nicer than ever. Jihoon slowly breathed in and out, simply enjoying the fresh air. “Maybe the air is especially nice after leaving prison”, he said quietly to himself.

The officer was clearing his throat loudly reminding Jihoon that they wanted to drive to the palace. Jihoon shrugged and walked the short distance to the police car to get into the backseat.

Jihoon tried to ask the officer some questions after they set off, but he always avoided answering, so the student gave up fast. He leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes for the rest of the short ride. Only when the car stopped he forced his tired eyes open and got out of the police car, what he saw in front of him made him speechless. When the police officer had said palace, he hadn’t expected what he saw in front of him. He was in an enormous courtyard and there were six buildings in front of him. There were two giant skyscrapers, their facade made completely out of glass. Close to them on their left side was an enormous oval, hall-like building, the outside again made of glass. Behind it were two smaller buildings that looked like cubes, of course again with a facade of glass. The sun was shining so strongly today that Jihoon’s eyes started watering slightly while looking at all of these surfaces made out of glass. 

Jihoon blinked a couple of times to get rid of the tears. Meanwhile, his gaze drifted to the right side where a fancy white building, that looked a bit like one of the billionaire’s houses you see sometimes on TV, was standing in stark contrast to the skyscrapers. The expensive-looking house had a glass dome on the left side which was making it go strangely well together with the buildings made out of glass. It was like a whole empire made out of glass, very futuristic and not at all like the palaces Jihoon had seen in history books.

“Which building is the palace?” Jihoon asked curiously while trying to take in all the impressions of his surroundings.

“All of this is the palace.”

Jihoon’s mouth dropped open at the revelation. “All of this? All six enormous buildings? Why are there so many of them?”

“Let’s hurry and go to the business part of the palace.” The police officer started walking in the direction of the towers and Jihoon immediately hurried after him. It seemed like he wouldn’t get any answers from the older guy. Jihoon was very sure at this point that the officer was somehow afraid of him because his answers had been strangely short since earlier. 

Instead of worrying about the officer's behavior, the student tried to wrap his head around the fact that all the fancy-looking buildings were the palace. It seemed like certain words had a different meaning here. Things were getting more and more complicated and at this point, Jihoon didn’t know anymore what was the most confusing.

Jihoon and the officer walked up to one of the skyscrapers and the student felt very much out of place. When the automatic glass doors opened a fancy interior design greeted him that looked out of this world - no pun intended. The most over the top thing was the elegant fountain in the lobby made out of white stone or maybe it was marble, Jihoon wasn’t very knowledgeable about these things. On the side of the fountain, different chess pieces were engraved into the stone, probably showing the importance of the markings. Jihoon really had to figure out what they were all about.

“Excuse me, these symbols on the fountain…,” Jihoon started to say but the police officer cut him off at once.

“Please wait here for a moment.”

Jihoon made a sour face and watched after the officer who walked up to the reception. The officer was making hectic movements with his arms and pointed at Jihoon. The student thought for a moment about waving at the receptionist just because the whole situation was so ridiculous, but in the end decided against it. He shouldn’t try to attract any attention, maybe then he would get answers to his questions inside this building.

The receptionist seemed to check something on his computer for a while, probably the identity of the police officer. Jihoon was slowly getting bored when the officer finally sprinted back to him after some minutes of waiting. “We can go inside. I’m coming with you because I need to apologize for my behavior once again.” 

Jihoon rolled his eyes but didn’t comment. He still wasn’t sure why the officer was so hellbent on apologizing again and again. Of course, he should apologize for taking Jihoon into custody even though he hadn’t done anything harmful, but the man had only done his job. Also, he wasn’t even the one to bring him to the police station.

The student sighed and followed the police officer through the electronic gates that had opened for them without doing anything. Jihoon concluded that the receptionist must have pressed some button, but when he looked back at the receptionist, he was standing close to the gate bowing deeply. Jihoon cocked his head to the side in confusion but didn't dwell too long on what had happened. After all, he had already seen stranger things today. 

They walked up to an elevator and inside the officer pressed the number five. Jihoon had expected to go to one of the higher floors because important people always seemed to sit up very high - or at least Jihoon imagined it to be like that. The student wasn’t all that sad that they would only go to the fifth floor though because being stuck for a long time in an elevator didn’t sound very appealing to him.

Jihoon wasn’t sure what he had exactly expected to see when they would get off the elevator, but for sure it wasn’t only very few doors. Open-plan offices would have made sense or many small ones too, but these enormous offices were difficult for Jihoon to comprehend. _What kind of place is this? And how important are these people?_

The officer led the way to the office at the very end of the corridor and knocked at the door. “Please come in,” they heard a chipper voice saying inside the room. The officer opened the tinted glass door and Jihoon took a deep breath before going inside first. The office he walked into was enormous and Jihoon was astonished for a moment because he had never been in such a luxury place before. It looked like a room right out of an interior design catalog for rich people. Jihoon had always believed that he would never set a foot into a place like this. Even though he studied business he had given up on making a lot of money because he was not very talented in his studies. A job in a small firm that could pay for his own small flat and some travels was all he had hoped for. That’s why he couldn’t deny being happy seeing such a luxury interior design, it was very fascinating to him - not that he would ever admit that out loud.

The man sitting behind the big and massive white table was surprisingly young, he couldn’t be much older than Jihoon. He was smiling gently when he saw Jihoon and got up from his chair. He was a handsome guy but what caught Jihoon’s eye the most was his very light brown hair. He noticed, now that someone with another hair color was in front of him, that he had only seen people with black hair since waking up in the small alley. It was suddenly strange to Jihoon to see so few people with dyed hair. In Seoul, you saw more people with colored hair, especially brown shades.

The man got up from his seat and walked around the table. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Hong Jisoo,” he said while bowing slightly.

“Lee Jihoon,” the student muttered while giving a small bow too. It was awkward to Jihoon that he didn’t even know to whom he was bowing to, but guessing from his office, he must be someone very important. 

“This is a really happy day for all of us. Thank you so much for bringing him here.”

Jihoon wanted to laugh loudly but he kept quiet. There was nothing happy about this day at all.

“It was no problem. We actually thought he’s a spy because we couldn’t see his mark. I’m very sorry. Please forgive me,” the officer told Jisoo who simply kept on smiling. 

“It’s not my place to forgive you,” Jisoo glanced over at Jihoon and the student couldn’t help sighing loudly when he saw the officer looking once more apologetically at him.

“Whatever. Just don’t put handcuffs on me again. My wrists are still hurting.”

The police officer nodded before bowing deeply again. Jihoon felt the headache from earlier coming back. He wanted to lie down and sleep for a very long time, but before doing that he really should get some answers here.

“I guess you can leave now,” Jisoo told the police officer who bowed once more and quietly left the room.

Jihoon suddenly felt even more awkward being alone with the owner of this very big office. “Why am I here?”

“The question is, why weren’t you here earlier?”

At this point, Jihoon really wanted to scream. His eyes turned into little slits, glaring angrily at the other. “Listen, mister. Since earlier no one is answering my questions. What is this palace here and why is it a pleasure for you to meet me? Everything is strange.”

“How can you not know the palace?” Jisoo asked irritatedly.

Jihoon thought about telling a half-lie again, but he had already experienced that people didn’t believe in his lies. Telling the truth seemed to be the better choice. “Okay, I guess it makes no sense to make up a story, you wouldn’t believe it either way, so here is the truth. I’m not from this world. Some hours ago I was in my flat and suddenly my body vanished and I woke up in this strange place. I don’t belong here. I’ve never heard of the palace, I don’t know about your strange marks and these… smartwatches? They are really freaky.” Jihoon looked at Jisoo’s hand and saw a watch made of glass sparkle at his wrist too. “You have one too! What the hell is even in there?”

Jisoo was quiet for a long time before he started talking again. “This is not what I expected, but it does make sense. If you weren’t in this world, it explains why we never found you.”

Jihoon massaged his temples lightly in an attempt to keep his headache at bay. People kept on saying odd things he couldn’t comprehend. “But why would you search for me? Seriously, can’t you just explain all this strange stuff to me?”

“I don’t think that it’s my place to explain everything. There is someone else who will do it.”

Jisoo moved his arm a bit higher and the glittering liquid inside his watch started swirling. “Hurry up. Code red is here,” he said loudly and the liquid turned white for a second before taking again it’s sparkling, colorful form.

“What is a code red?” Jihoon asked tiredly, annoyed that he never understood what was going on.

“Oh, it’s a special message for someone. He’ll know.”

Jihoon had so many questions, but no one was willing to answer them and it was really starting to wear him out. He was in a ridiculously expensive looking office with some mysterious guy who was probably wearing clothes that were more expensive than two months rent of his flat. Jihoon wasn’t sure where he was but he was very sure that he didn’t belong here. He should get out of this place but he had nowhere to go. Everything seemed like a very big mistake to Jihoon.

“Excuse me, mister Hong Jisoo but I…”

Before Jihoon could finish the sentence, the door was flying open and a tall man stumbled inside. He was breathing harshly, probably running the way to the office. He looked with wide eyes at Jihoon, sizing him up from head to toe. Just as sudden as he had stormed into the office, his breathing evened out completely, and instead, he started smiling brightly. He pushed a hand through his dark red hair before stepping closer to Jihoon. The student took automatically a step back when the stranger was too close to him for his liking. Something was off about that guy, but he didn’t know what. He looked at Jihoon like he knew him but the smaller one was very sure he had never seen the man before because he had a face that was easy to remember. Small slanted eyes and a sharp jawline; Jihoon was sure he wouldn’t forget a face like that.

The man, who seemed to be close to Jisoo’s age, took one more step closer and reached for Jihoon’s shirt. Jihoon looked down and saw the red-haired man open another button of his shirt before yanking it to the side. Right over his heart was a chess piece mark. Jihoon looked up in shock only to see the tall man looking with adoring eyes at him.

“I’ve been waiting a lifetime for you, my queen.”

_________________________________________

 **Bind** : A strong grip or stranglehold on a position in a game of chess that is difficult for the opponent to break. A bind is usually an advantage in space created by advanced pawns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi :) I’m back! Slowly it’s starting to get interesting… well, maybe everyone is just confused at this point the same way Jihoon is. So many questions but no answers at all. Everything will be answered soon though. Because this is a fantasy au, the world-building will take quite a while but it’s also the charm of a fantasy au. At least for me, it is :D
> 
> In the last week, I came up with some more plot for Queen Sacrifice and I’m very content at this point. If I can write it down well, the story can be a very nice one. I’m already feeling very attached to it haha.
> 
> Right, I couldn’t resist adding “code red” in here just as a funny gimmick. It will be explained later what it means but it’s pretty much just me wanting to add the title of my other story into this one haha.
> 
> I’ll try to update QS in around two weeks again. Let’s see if it will work out. I’m not so sure because I’ll update Perfect Imperfection next and the second chapter will be massive. Oh well, we’ll see :D
> 
> Thank you for the amazingly nice feedback on the first chapter. I was very glad to hear that the beginning was interesting! Also thank you for the kudos, subscriptions and bookmarks! ILY <3
> 
> Take care and see you soon <3


	3. Royal Piece

Jihoon felt a chill going down his spine while staring down at the chess piece marking on his chest. Why hadn't he noticed it sooner? It must have been the reason the police officers had suddenly changed their behavior and brought him to the palace. He should have seen it even if only a bit of it had been peeking out under his shirt. Jihoon chuckled and shook his head. Maybe he was close to losing his sanity. Nothing made sense here. Everything was too surreal, too ridiculous. Even the thought of having been run over by a car and being in a coma now dreaming up this world seemed to be more realistic than a world like this really existing.

Jihoon heard the man in front of him clearing his throat loudly and he finally remembered that the red-haired guy had said something to him but he didn’t pay any attention because he had been too shocked to see the chess piece mark on his skin. Jihoon looked up at the taller man who was smiling at him brighter than a thousand suns. 

“Hi, my name is Kwon Soonyoung. I‘m the king.”

Jihoon wanted to sigh loudly but held it in. Of course, this strange place had a king. A kingdom with a palace and a king. They were probably riding on horses here too. 

“I’m Lee Jihoon and... Why are you smiling at me like this?” Jihoon didn’t know why, but the smile on the other’s faces had turned very disturbing. Something about it was wrong, but Jihoon couldn’t really put a finger on it. Instead of trying to figure out what exactly irked him, he turned around and gave Jisoo a confused look.

“Why is he smiling at me like this? Is he really the king? He looks more like an insane person.” 

Jisoo laughed quietly but didn’t answer him. Jihoon turned back to Soonyoung who was still smiling at him as brightly as before, not bothered by his harsh words at all.

“You don’t know how long I‘ve waited for this day,“ the king said in a calm voice, but his eyes were sparkling. Everything about the man was off - the joy in his smile, the adoration in his eyes. It was almost like he knew who Jihoon was. Jihoon would even go as far as claiming that Soonyoung thought of him as someone very precious with the way he watched him. It was bothering the student to no end.

“Do we know each other? Because I don’t think we know each other and the way you look at me is really creeping me out!” Jihoon thought that his rude tone would affect the king one way or the other, but the taller one didn’t blink an eye. He simply cocked his head to the side and gave him a warm smile, his slanted eyes turning into little crescents.

“Of course I know who you are. You‘re the queen, Jihoon.”

Jihoon needed a moment to process what Soonyoung had just told him. When the realization of what the taller one just told him had settled in, a dry laugh made its way out of Jihoon’s throat. 

“Queen? Do you want to be funny?”

“Why would I joke about something like that?” Soonyoung asked back and Jihoon couldn’t believe he needed to answer such a question - to him it was obvious after all. 

“Hello? I‘m a guy, I can’t be the queen.”

Soonyoung looked confused at Jisoo who simply shrugged. “Why can’t you be the queen when you’re a guy?“

“A queen is always a woman,” Jihoon said soberly. He could see the confusion in Soonyoung’s eyes growing.

“No, there have been male queens before. What are you talking about?“

“No, what are YOU talking about?? I don’t understand a single word you are saying! I don’t understand these strange chess piece markings and the watches and this talk about me being a queen! This is not my world!“ Jihoon panted slightly after half-screaming all his worries and confusion out. 

This time he got a reaction out of the king. His smile faltered and he gripped his head like he was in pain. “Is that why you never came to me? Because you weren’t in this world?”

“Obviously! This... this... can’t be real,” Jihoon stuttered not knowing how to describe the surreality of the situation.

Soonyoung fell silent and bobbed his body up and down in deep thought for a while. He stopped abruptly and the smile was suddenly back on his face. “Don’t worry Jihoon. I‘ll explain everything to you. I‘ll be always there for you.”

“You are what is worrying me the most here!!“ Jihoon told the taller one without even thinking about it. He heard Jisoo chuckling from behind his desk, he must have sat down again while Soonyoung and him had been talking.

Soonyoung smiled sheepishly at Jihoon and pointed at two couches close to them. Jihoon shrugged coolly but sat down nevertheless. He had been standing for far too long already.

Soonyoung sat down on the other couch opposite Jihoon. He took one of the glasses from the side of the table and filled it with water from a bottle. He placed it in front of Jihoon, but the smaller one only looked at it wearily for a while. What if this was not water, but something entirely different? It could be poison for all he knew. Jihoon decided that his thoughts were laughably at this point and picked up the glass and downed the water in one go. When he put the glass with a loud clank back on the table, he could see an amused twinkle in Soonyoungs’s eyes. Jihoon wanted to comment on it, but Soonyoung started talking first. 

“These marks show our abilities,” Soonyoung said while opening the buttons of his white dress shirt to reveal the white mark of the king. Jihoon had to admit the mark was a magnificent piece of art. The black outlines were a stark contrast to the crisp white the piece was filled with. The mark looked almost too real to be a simple tattoo. It was glowing slightly, calling out to him, and suddenly, Jihoon was overcome by the need to lean forward and touch the mark on the other’s skin. He leaned slightly forward and started to reach out but quickly sat back again when he noticed what he had been doing. He had a similar mark on his own body and he could inspect it later more closely. 

“There are six different marks in this kingdom: The mark of the pawn, the knight, the rook, the bishop, the king, and the queen. Most people in the kingdom bear the pawn’s mark. It means they have no special abilities. The knights have heightened strength and agility and the rooks can use magic. There are just a few hundred thousands of them in the kingdom and their powers are vastly different in strength. We only have two bishops in the kingdom, one has a physical characteristic while the other is a magic-user. The magic-user is the seer in our kingdom. The bishop with the physical strength is like the right-hand man of the queen and king. There is only one queen and one king in the country. While the queen is the strongest magic user, the king has the biggest physical strength.”

Jihoon rubbed his eyes in hope that his surroundings would suddenly change and he would be back at home. Did Soonyoung just talk about magic and heightened strange like it was the most normal thing in the world? And why was there a seer? Seers didn’t exist. People claiming to be a seer were simply swindlers who wanted to make money with talking rubbish. _This is insanity_. Jihoon felt like getting up and leaving, but he had nowhere to go so he simply remained seated and kept on listening to the fairy tale Soonyoung was telling him. 

“But that’s not the only reason the queen and king are the most powerful persons in the kingdom. They are the only ones who can use both heightened physical strength and magic. Also, they are complementing each other in many aspects and they are the ones who put the magical barrier around the kingdom. Only with their unified magic, it’s working.”

While Soonyoung got more and more chipper while talking, Jihoon’s face kept on getting more gloomy. “I don’t understand one word you are saying.” 

“I’m saying that you are the queen and I am the king and we are bound to unite to keep the kingdom safe.” Soonyoung’s voice was gentle and friendly - so friendly that it kept on irritating Jihoon on top of being irritated by all the things the king told him.

Two people uniting didn’t sound good to Jihoon. He was almost afraid to ask about it, but he was sure that at this point things couldn’t get even worse. “What does it mean when you say we have to unite?”

“It’s a magical process, but at the end of everything is marriage.”

Jihoon had been wrong. It could get worse. He looked around the room searching for cameras like he had done already earlier at the police station. This had to be a joke. Someone must really hate him and thought it was funny to make an episode of candid camera with him.

“You’re joking, right?” Jihoon was still so deep in shock that he couldn’t even put any venom into his voice.

“Why do you keep on thinking I would joke about such an important matter?” 

Jihoon was looking for any dishonesty in Soonyoung’s eyes but there wasn’t any. There was only wonder and warmth and it made Jihoon sick to the core.

“Is there even more than me being one of the highest persons here, who can use magic and is bound to marry you?” Jihoon spat out and gave Soonyoung a dark look. Magic, seers, kings, and queens were one thing, but marrying someone he just met was again in a completely other league and it was incomprehensible to Jihoon why the other was talking about it like it was a completely normal thing. There was no way Soonyoung really wanted to marry him. It only could be a very big joke - a not very funny one.

“Maybe we'll talk about that another time. You don’t seem to cope well with the news.“

Jihoon wanted to answer “the fuck I don’t cope well” but only narrowed his eyes. He was annoyed that the king was so very calm while telling him all these absurd things, but the red-haired man’s words had been right. Jihoon was hardly able to wrap his head around what the other had just told him, he probably couldn’t take any more life-changing news. 

“Okay, we‘ll leave it at that but I still have some questions about the things you already told me.“

“Yes, of course,” Soonyoung said eagerly, flashing Jihoon a big smile. The king’s teeth were annoyingly perfect Jihoon had to admit, but it was the only good thing about the taller one. Jihoon hated Soonyoung’s constant smile and his eyes that were crinkling together in happiness. His expression wasn’t going well together with his calm and powerful demeanor. Sometimes in life, there were people you aren’t compatible with and Jihoon was sure that was the case for Soonyoung and him. 

“You said something about magic and… are you for real?” It was one of the things that kept bothering Jihoon the most. In his mind, there was no way that magic could exist but Soonyoung kept on talking about magic and magic-users.

“Of course, magic is the most important thing in our life. The magic lives within us and we live using the magic. Everything in this kingdom only works because of the magic.”

“What exactly works with magic?” Jihoon asked carefully and looked again around the room trying to find this time something out of the ordinary. Something that screamed MAGIC at you but there was nothing. Everything looked just like at Jihoon’s home - only much more expensive.

“The magic users in our kingdom can use elementary magic but we learned long ago how to convert it into a source power for all kinds of different things. Almost everything you see runs on magic. It’s difficult to explain shortly what magic can do and what it can’t do.”

It seemed very unbelievable to Jihoon that almost everything was running on magic when the whole city looked just like Seoul. Soonyoung had to be joking or at least exaggerating.

“What about electricity?” Jihoon finally asked and Soonyoung looked at Jisoo who was shrugging his shoulders. 

“What is electricty?” Soonyoung pronounced the word slightly wrong and Jihoon couldn’t help but believe that the king had no idea what he was talking about. He had to explain it another way. 

“Well, what about this light?”

“Magic,” Soonyoung answered simply. 

Jihoon searched for something else in the room that looked like it would run with electricity and his eyes fell onto the sleek black computer on Jisoo’s desk. “Okay and what about the computer?”

Soonyoung followed Jihoon’s direction of view but turned immediately back to the smaller one after looking only for a second at the computer. “Magic,” he said once more and Jihoon let out a big sigh.

“Okay, great. So you’re like Harry Potter.”

Jihoon didn’t even like fantasy stories. Jihoon liked realistic things he could understand. He hadn’t been particularly good at physics, but at least it somehow made sense to him. Magic, chess marks on people’s skin, and marriages for the sake of a strange kingdom didn’t make sense to him.

“Who is Harry Potter?” Soonyoung asked and Jihoon simply rolled his eyes.

”A wizard who uses magic. He can move things around with magic, transform things into other things with magic, and manipulate the mind of others with magic. These kinds of things.”

Soonyoung pushed some strands of his dark hair out of his eyes and bit his lip lightly. “Can people do that in your world? We only have elementary magic, we can’t manipulate people’s minds.” 

At this point, Jihoon wasn’t sure if the king was joking, making fun of him, or if he was simply dumb. Who would even believe that someone can control the mind of others with magic? “Harry Potter is just a story! Fiction! A book! No one can use magic in the real world.” 

“This is the real world,“ Soonyoung deadpanned, not blinking an eye.

“No, it’s not. This is a bad dream!!” Jihoon sprang up from the couch and glared at Soonyoung. Before his anger could flare up, even more, the king’s face turned overly gentle again and all will to fight left the smaller one. Normally people reacted cold or harsh when Jihoon’s anger got the better of him, but it seemed that Soonyoung was completely resistant against Jihoon’s anger. The student had never met a person like Soonyoung before and didn’t know how to deal with him.

“Maybe we should take a break,” Soonyoung told him softly.

“No, no, no. I still have questions! Nothing in my head makes sense right now!” There were too many questions left unanswered and while Jihoon really didn’t want to talk about marriage because that would absolutely not happen, he still had questions about this curious kingdom. He thought for a while about what to ask first and decided on a very simple thing. “You’re the king, does that mean you rule the kingdom?”

“Decisions are being made by a council out of several people from all positions. I’m part of that council. Of course, I have a higher standing in certain areas. But in the end, I‘m no absolute ruler. I‘m simply the strongest person in the country. You and me both are.”

It seemed like the word king didn’t have the same meaning in this world than it had in Jihoon’s. Just to be sure he asked another question. “But you are, as the king, in the highest position?” 

Soonyoung looked slightly confused, probably not knowing where Jihoon got the idea from. “No, the king and queen are on the same top level. We just have different things we are good at. If I would have to choose who is more powerful, I would say the queen.”

Jihoon laughed fakely twice, his face turning sober immediately afterward. “Okay, sounds absurd. I have no power.”

“Yes, you do. You have…,” Soonyoung said but couldn’t finish the sentence because Jihoon cut him off at once. 

“No, I don’t!” Jihoon said loudly. There was no way he had magical abilities. He should know about something like that, shouldn’t he? Some strange things should have happened in his childhood then. He should have set a book on fire or something like that but there never had been anything out of the ordinary in Jihoon’s life. You could say, it was the most unspectacular life one could lead. He didn’t even have any really good or really bad memories. He had just lived, struggling to survive somehow.

“The mark states otherwise, Jihoon,” Soonyoung told him, startling Jihoon ultimately out of his thoughts.

Something about the way Soonyoung said his name was ticking Jihoon. Every little thing Soonyoung was doing irked Jihoon in one way or the other. He suddenly felt like screaming at the king, barely able to suppress it. “The mark must be a malfunction! I don’t even belong here!”

“No, you’ll see soon that you belong here and that you are needed here. With great powers like yours will come also a lot of responsibility. You stand at the top of this kingdom - it’s your fate. But don’t worry too much, most of the time it’s just a lot of paperwork you’ll have to keep up with. Believe me, you‘ll hate it. But before you learn about paperwork, you’ll have to be able to use magic. That’s the most important for the kingdom right now. If there‘ll be an attack now, we’ll be at a great disadvantage because we have no queen to fight with us.” Soonyoung took a short break, his expression gave off that he didn’t like what he had just said. “Of course if an attack comes, I‘ll try everything in my power to keep the kingdom safe. I’m not an advanced magic user but I‘m the king and pretty good at what I’m doing. So don’t worry and just concentrate on your studies.“

 _Don’t worry, he said_. Each word coming out of Soonyoung’s mouth was worrying Jihoon more. Learning how to use magic, a lot of paperwork and an attack sounded very worrisome in Jihoon’s opinion - especially the last part.

“What are you talking about again? Why would anyone attack the kingdom?”

“We are at war Jihoon, already for over 500 years.”

The room was completely silent for a moment. Jihoon and Soonyoung were simply staring at each other without blinking. Jihoon was the first one to fall out of his stupor and let out a tired sigh.

“Awesome, just what I needed. With whom are you at war and why?” Jihoon rubbed his temples in an attempt to will away the headache that was slowly building up. On top of all the strange things going on here, there was a freaking war. Jihoon didn’t want to be part of any war, especially not one that wasn’t his own.

“It’s a complicated story. We are at war with our neighbors, the Onyx Kingdom. Actually, our Kingdom, the Diamond Kingdom, and the Onyx Kingdom were once one kingdom. 500 years ago there was a rupture in the magic and the kingdom had been split into two parts. Once we all had the white marks on our skin but the people in the Onyx Kingdom bear now black marks. They have their own functioning system that isn’t working together with ours anymore, their magic isn’t the same as ours.”

Jihoon thought that the names of the kingdoms weren’t very imaginative, but as even more strange he perceived the split into white and black marks. Jihoon couldn’t wrap his head around how similar everything in this world was to chess.

“But why did that happen?”

“No one really knows. Our best guess is that the magic had been too strong and split into two halves.”

There was a dull throbbing in Jihoon’s head. The pain kept on getting worse. There was too much information he couldn’t comprehend and it was starting to get difficult to concentrate.

“Okay, I don’t really understand that but even less I understand why you are at war with the Onyx Kingdom when you’ve been one kingdom 500 years ago.”

Soonyoung nodded, seemingly knowing where Jihoon was coming from. “That’s the complicated part. We don’t want to be at war and tried to make a peace agreement with the Onyx Kingdom but they are refusing. They want to merge the two kingdoms into one again.”

“But wouldn’t it be for the best if the two kingdoms would be one again?” A war that was ongoing for 500 years seemed rather unreasonable. One peaceful kingdom made more sense to Jihoon than two kingdoms fighting all the time. But it looked like nothing made sense in this world.

“Like I said, the magic split and we have both our own system now. If the Onyx Kingdom would force our magic to turn into theirs, we would end up without a free will. They could control us whatever way they wanted because they would forcefully turn our magic into theirs. Even worse, this process doesn’t always work. Many people have died that way. A checkmate is dangerous,” Soonyoung said looking dead serious. Jihoon on the other hand couldn’t take this talk seriously at all anymore.

“Did you really just say checkmate? This is so ridiculous. Whoever made this episode of candid camera is a genius. How did they come up with all of this?”

“Checkmate is the term of turning someone else’s magic into your own magic. Why is it ridiculous?”

“Why is everything based on chess here?” That question had been long overdue. It couldn’t be just a coincidence that so many things in this world were similar to the chessboard standing back at home on his table.

“What is chess?” Soonyoung asked curiously.

Jihoon huffed and shook his head tiredly. “A board game?” 

“Never heard of that.” 

Jihoon was at a loss for words. How could they not know chess in this world when everything was based on it?

“You have a board with king, queen, bishops, knights, rooks, and pawns in black and white. The two colors go against each other and the one who first loses the king also loses the game. Losing the king is called checkmate.” 

“That’s a very curious story you are telling me right now, Jihoon,” the king wondered out loud. He glanced at Jisoo, who had been silent throughout their whole conversation. He had his head cocked slightly to the side while staring blankly ahead. He looked like he was bothered by something he had heard but Jihoon couldn’t tell if it was because of him mentioning chess or if it was because of something entirely different. Either way, Jihoon didn’t understand the reaction of these two when he had been told an unreasonable amount of unnormal things since arriving here.

“Excuse me, but you just told me that you have magic and are at war for over 500 years. That’s a million times stranger than a board game!!” Jihoon had enough of everything and got up from the couch. “This is giving me a big headache. It all doesn’t make sense. I want to go to sleep and when I wake up I’m hopefully back at home.“ 

“I‘ll bring you to our room then.“ Soonyoung got up as well, flashing Jihoon another brilliant smile. 

Jihoon just stood rooted to his spot feeling like someone had knocked the air out of his lungs. “What? Did you just say _our_ room?“ 

“You‘re my queen, of course, you‘ll sleep in my room,” Soonyoung reasoned soberly. 

“Don’t call me that!” Jihoon hissed angrily. He didn’t want to be called queen. Even less “my queen” from a person he had just met.

“But you are my queen.” Soonyoung gave him a small smile, but it just agitated Jihoon more.

“Are there no other people I can talk to? I’m so done with you. I just want to sleep. ALONE.” 

Soonyoung looked flabbergasted at Jihoon while knitting his eyebrows together but that expression only lasted a short while. The smile that crept upon his face afterward was even bigger than before. “You’re probably shy. We‘ll take it slow.“ 

Now it was Jihoon’s turn to be shocked. He couldn’t believe that Soonyoung was for real but Jihoon didn’t feel like discussing with the other and just shrugged it coldly off. He suddenly felt a presence behind him and turned around to see Jisoo standing there. He must have gotten up from behind his table without Jihoon noticing.

“It was nice meeting you, Lee Jihoon,” Jisoo told him while bowing slightly.

“Yeah, same,” Jihoon responded even though he wasn’t sure what to think about Jisoo. He hadn’t talked enough to him to tell if the older one was likable or not.

Jisoo walked the few steps over to Soonyoung and patted him on the back. They exchanged glances, but Jihoon had no idea what they meant. Soonyoung chuckled lowly and finally started leaving the office. Jihoon hastily followed him to the elevator that opened its doors as soon as Soonyoung stood in front of it.

“Where are we going?” Jihoon asked the taller one after the doors had closed and the elevator was slowly going down.

“The main palace,” Soonyoung answered. Jihoon didn’t even need to ask this time about the unknown term because Soonyoung had obviously noticed the confusion on his face. “It’s the big, white building you probably saw when arriving here.”

“So you live in the white building?”

“Yes, it’s the living quarters of the highest ranked people in the kingdom. A long time ago it was the headquarters for everything - working, living, and training. It became too small at one point so the other parts of the palace were built.”

 _Right, the millionaires house is too small_ , Jihoon thought sarcastically. These people were thinking in a very different dimension than what Jihoon was used to. They probably had a swimming pool and tennis court too and thought it was completely normal.

“What use do the other buildings have?”

“The tower we just left is for business. Like I’ve said before, we have a lot of paperwork to do. The other big tower is the living quarters for many knights and rooks. You have to know that the palace was built close to the border to the other kingdom so we can react quickly when they strike an attack. That’s why we try to assemble all strong magic users and people with heightened strength in the same place. Not everyone wants to live in the palace though. Some have their own flats and houses close by.”

Jihoon suddenly got curious about how the kingdom was built. It made sense that the city was close to the border when they needed to fend off an attack fast. Everything seemed to be geared to war. It was very surreal to Jihoon that real fights were taking place here when the city looked nothing but peaceful.

“We are close to the border?”

“Yes, we can reach it in 30 minutes by car. No one can reach the city from the border at that time.” Soonyoung’s answer sounded rather unspectacular to Jihoon. No horses and no magically beaming yourself to the border. What use was magic when it was so utterly dull? Right now Jihoon didn’t even understand what real use magic had here. Back at home, everything was working just the way it was here and they didn’t need magic for that.

“But that would mean everyone who is a fighter needs to know at once that there is an attack. How is that possible?”

“The two persons who made the magical barrier know when it gets breached. They’ll call out a code blue and everyone knows at once.”

Another code. Jisoo had earlier said code red to Soonyoung, now the king talked about a code blue. _What’s with these people and all their codes here?_

“I don’t really get it. What is a code blue? And what is a code red? When you were called earlier…”

Soonyoung interrupted Jihoon at once. It was the first time through all their conversation that the king interrupted him. Normally he had been listening attentively to what Jihoon had to say, but now his answer was rushed. “The code blue is a complex process. We can talk about that another time.”

“You keep on saying that,” Jihoon muttered. Soonyoung had obviously dodged talking about the code red. Jihoon needed to ask later again about it because that code red seemed to be somehow very special.

“I don’t want to overwhelm you.” The gentleness in Soonyoung’s voice and gaze was back. He looked at Jihoon like he was a fragile glass figure that could break apart any second. No one had ever watched Jihoon that way and it made him feel overly uneasy.

“Too late. You don’t know how absurd everything is to me. In my world, there is no magic.”

“I’ll try to be more careful. Sorry, if you feel uncomfortable.” Soonyoung stopped his step and smiled apologetically at Jihoon.

“Why would you be sorry?”

“Because you are important to me,” the king told him without any hesitation, but Jihoon’s answer came just as fast.

“You don’t even know me.” Jihoon’s voice had a hard edge to it. He meant what he had said. Soonyoung didn’t know him, so there was no way he could be important to the other one. Jihoon was very curious about what Soonyoung’s answer would be, but the king simply looked down, his lips pressed together into a tight line. Even after a minute of waiting, he didn’t speak up again, so Jihoon decided to give up on that topic for now and ask about something else he was curious about. “What function do the other buildings of the palace have? The big, oval hall for example.”

Soonyoung started walking again and the carefree smile was back on his face. “It’s our training center.”

 _Ridiculous_. Who even needed such a big training center? It looked like an enormous stadium.

“And the cube-like buildings behind it?”

“It’s the palace university and the living quarters for the students.”

Jihoon shook his head in disbelief and turned around to look at the buildings behind him. They were already close to the entrance of the main palace, so it was difficult to see the university from here. “You even have a university?”

“The students at palace university get a slightly different education than normal. Besides studying they also have time to go to the training center. It’s important to be in good shape when an attack strikes. The other kingdom is strong.”

Jihoon first wanted to inquire if they sent students to the frontline but there was another thing that was even more surprising to him. “Stronger than you are?”

“We always have trouble fending off the Onyx Kingdom. Many have lost their lives.” For the first time this day, Soonyoung looked unhappy. Jihoon was sure the other had a lot of sad stories to tell, but he didn’t want to ask about them.

“How did they not win this war then up to now?” Jihoon asked. They had finally arrived in front of the main palace. The big doors of the entrance made Jihoon feel very small.

“It’s a miracle,” Soonyoung said while the double door to the main palace swung open without using a key or a doorbell. It was just like magic and now Jihoon was sure it was indeed magic working here and not just a silly saying.

When Jihoon stepped into the house, he felt like he was in a fever dream. Not even once in his life, he had dreamed of being in a place like this, so it was clear to him it could be only a fantasy his mind made up while being sick. The entrance hall was gigantic. In the middle was a big, white staircase that split into two directions after a bit. Everywhere Jihoon looked were expensive-looking, modern paintings on the wall and various pieces of art were put into glass cases. It looked more like they were in a museum or art gallery and not in a place where people were simply living, eating, and sleeping in.

“Are you sure, you are living here?” Jihoon asked wearily. 

“Downstairs are many conference rooms and offices. There are also private training rooms and the dining room is the corridor down here on the left side,” Soonyoung pointed into the direction he was talking about. “Upstairs are the bedrooms. Every room has its own bathroom so there is nothing to worry about.”

 _There he goes again telling me not to worry._ Jihoon followed Soonyoung who had started going up the staircase. The white stairs were shiny and Jihoon wondered for a moment if he would slip on them when only wearing socks. He should better not try that out.

On the second floor, they turned right and went down the corridor almost up to the very end. There was just so much white everywhere. White doors, white decor, white walls with silver stripes on them. Jihoon wasn’t sure if he could get used to seeing so much white color every day - it was already starting to hurt his eyes. 

Soonyoung abruptly stopped and opened a door, this time with his hand. Jihoon’s mouth fell open when he walked into the room. He had expected an overly white room that would make him feel like fleeing the moment he set foot into it but it was vastly different. The walls were indeed the same crisp white with silver stripes on it but the interior was in different shades of blue. The curtains and bedsheets were a dark navy, the soft carpet was only a notch lighter. There was a big wooden desk standing at the wall at the far end of the room. Close to the entrance was a small couch where two people could fit on and a small table in front of it. The table cloth had light blue and white stripes. There were a few plants placed in the room, some bigger ones and some smaller ones. It was a lovely arrangement and Jihoon was positively beaming. 

“You’re telling me that _this_ is my room?” Jihoon asked Soonyoung eagerly. This time the king didn’t seem to share his excitement, his reaction being rather sour.

“No, this is a guest room. Your room is my room.” 

“Whatever. Just leave me alone already. I’m tired as hell.” Jihoon had never before seen such a big room with a bed that is larger than his whole room at home. He needed to find a way back into his world for sure but right now he thought he could live here for at least a few days. After all, he would most probably never see such luxury in his life again. No matter how hard he worked, this wasn’t a place he could reach.

“I’m going to get you from my room some clothes you can sleep in. Someone needs to go and buy clothes with you tomorrow and we need to get you a smartwatch.”

Jihoon wanted to tell Soonyoung that there was no need to buy him lots of clothes because he didn’t plan on staying here for a long time but bit his tongue. The other didn’t need to know for now that he wanted to search for a way back to his world as soon as possible. He would try figuring out things alone first because the king probably wouldn’t want to let him go. Jihoon seemed to be very important for the kingdom, after all.

“Right, what’s that sparkly liquid inside the watch?” Jihoon asked absentmindedly while inspecting the couch that was made out of leather.

“Magic.” Of course, it was magic. It seemed like everything in this kingdom was magic. Why did he even bother asking? “I told you that we have a way to use our elementary magic as a source for everything we are using, right? If the magic gets converted, it looks like this.”

“For which things exactly do you use the watches?”

“For everything, really. But I think it’s getting too much for you to take in at this point. Let’s talk about it another time. You look tired.”

Jihoon was very curious about how they used the smartwatches because they seemed to be essential for life here, but he couldn’t deny that he was very tired. “You’re right. I don’t even feel like hearing more of that strange stuff right now.”

Soonyoung nodded and told him that he’ll be back in a moment. Jihoon used the time the other was gone to open the door at the side of his room. Soonyoung hadn’t been lying when he told him that there was a bathroom connected to every bedroom - a very big one at that. This time everything was a blending white again, but it didn’t bother Jihoon all that much. He opened the closet beside the door to find it full of towels in different shades of blues and sizes. Before he could even close the door again, he already heard Soonyoung coming back. He couldn’t have been gone for more than three minutes, so Jihoon guessed his room was the one at the very end of the corridor with the insanely big double door.

When Jihoon came back into the bedroom, Soonyoung was standing close to the door holding out some clothes. Jihoon walked over to him and grabbed the garments from Soonyoung.

“Here are the clothes I promised you. Water and some fruits are on the table. Do you need anything else?”

“No, thank you,” Jihoon said and expected Soonyoung to leave but the king didn’t move one bit. “You can go now,” Jihoon added and it woke the taller one up from his stupor but instead of leaving, he took a step closer.

“Jihoon, I’m so glad you’re finally here. I’m so glad you found me.” Soonyoung reached out and softly touched Jihoon’s arm. The smaller one ripped it away as if he had been burnt by fire.

“Don’t touch me like we know each other! I’m not going to marry you. Never. Just so you know.”

Like countless times before, Soonyoung simply reacted by smiling at Jihoon. He took a step back to give the student more space and looked at the digital clock on the wall before talking again.

“I’m going to wake you up in the morning so we can have breakfast together.” There was no hurt in Soonyoung’s voice. Just the same gentleness Jihoon had already heard the whole day. “Sleep well, Jihoon.”

The king looked at Jihoon for a moment longer and then turned around to leave the room. Jihoon let out a big sigh when the door fell close. Soonyoung was a mystery to him. He didn’t understand what was going on in the other’s head at all. He couldn’t comprehend why the king was so happy to see him and how he could like the ridiculous destiny put upon them. There were still so many things Jihoon didn’t know, but somehow he wasn’t all that eager to figure them out. Everything was a mess and he was right in the middle of it all - magic, a war, a fate he didn’t want. 

For now, he would enjoy the luxury of his housing and cooperate with the people around him because he had no other choice but he would make sure he wouldn’t need to stay here for a long time. He didn’t want to fight a war that wasn’t his and he didn’t want to marry a man he barely knew.

“I really have to find a way back home,” he said into the silence of the room. Strangely enough, he could hear Soonyoung in his head telling him that he belonged here and nowhere else. Jihoon shook his head strongly and picked up the clothes Soonyoung had brought him. There were two sets of underwear, a simple white t-shirt and a pair of dark blue sweatpants, everything looked too big for Jihoon, but the student couldn’t care less. He simply wanted to sleep because his head was hurting and the exhaustion of the day was making him dizzy.

He pulled off his clothes and put on the things Soonyoung had brought him. He glanced at the big, old mirror in front of him and saw that the clothes were indeed much too big for him. He looked like a little kid and somehow he even felt like one at the moment. He had so much to learn and discover in this new world but he didn’t know if he would have the patience for it. 

Jihoon shrugged and walked over to the enormous bed and let himself fall onto it. The bed was the most comfortable thing he had ever laid on. He rolled a few times around in the bed until he settled under the bed sheet which he pulled up all the way to his chin.

Tomorrow would be a new day and then he could figure out how to return home. Or maybe if he was lucky, he would wake up in his own bed, noticing that everything had been just a bad dream.

Jihoon’s mind slowly swam away while images of chess pieces, watches made out of glass and a man with dark red hair were flickering behind his closed eyes. Not even five minutes later, he fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.

_________________________________________

 **Royal Piece** : A king or queen. In chess variants, the term refers to any piece that must be protected from capture; under this definition, only the king is royal in orthodox chess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi :) Finally, chapter 3 is finished. I’m totally out of order with my updates now because I first wanted to update Perfect Imperfection, but I had some trouble with it so I decided after not writing for weeks to update Queen Sacrifice which seems like the only story I have no problems with writing at the moment haha. With Code Red, I always have problems updating either way but you know that already.
> 
> This chapter turned out much longer than expected. I thought it would be again a bit over 4k but it somehow turned into 7k. I really didn’t want to write such long chapters for Queen Sacrifice at the beginning to finish them fast while also writing on my other stories… Well, it seems like I simply can’t write chapters under 5k. Good for the reader, bad for my time management lol
> 
> This chapter might be a bit heavy because so many things about the world they are in get explained and some of the things are even only half-explained. I hope it wasn’t overly annoying to read because certain things might only make borderline sense right now. Everything will be slowly explained, I swear :D I think at this point of the story, Soonyoung’s character is also very difficult to understand, but that will get clearer very soon too. Either way, I feel a bit sorry for Jihoon because he’s just non-stop confused and I can’t blame him. I can only blame myself for writing a fantasy au hahaha
> 
> Next update? I seriously don’t know which story or when I’ll update next. I don’t have work on Thursday and I’ll decide then. I think the only way of knowing when I update is looking at my [Twitter account](https://twitter.com/just_a_pinwheel). Feel free to do that :D It’s just a strange mess though haha.
> 
> Thank you like always for the nice comments and support. While I simply have fun building and writing this story, I’m also very happy that some of you like this story because I personally like it the best out of everything I’ve done till now. I know this story will probably never be as popular as Code Red because it’s not abo, but this story is my blood, sweat, and tears I put a lot of work and thought into and it means a lot to me. So thanks a lot for reading, enjoying and sharing your thoughts with me. Thank you for the kudos, the bookmarks, and the subscriptions. I appreciate everything very much :)
> 
> See you hopefully soon! Stay healthy and take care <3


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